Ecology of Burkholderia pseudomallei and the interactions between environmental Burkholderia spp. and human–animal hosts

Multilocus Sequence Typing of Historical Burkholderia pseudomallei Isolates Collected in Southeast Asia from 1964 to 1967 Provides Insight into the Epidemiology of Melioidosis

“…The number of CFU per ml of soil/ water suspensions was found to be highest in the northeast region of Thailand and is probably related to the risk of disease in that region (27,31). B. pseudomallei is reportedly unevenly distributed in soil, and the differences in isolation rates may be explained by regional variations in temperature, rainfall, sunlight, soil composition, and relative humidity (7,27,31). Although the collection itself is regionally biased towards the south, the addition of the historical-isolate data to the B. pseudomallei MLST database will provide balance, representing the geographical distribution and population biology of B. pseudomallei isolates in Thailand, and will shift the ratio of clinical isolates to environmental isolates, promoting increased support for environmental strains of this soil saprophyte and human pathogen in the MLST database.…”

In situ hybridization to detect and identify Burkholderia pseudomallei in human melioidosis

“…The lung was the most likely organ to be positive (cases [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Bacilli were demonstrated in alveolar walls either within capillaries or intracellularly (Figure 2b).…”

“…1 It causes melioidosis, an infectious disease of major public health importance. B. pseudomallei is responsible for 20% of community-acquired septicemia and 40% of sepsis-related deaths in Northern Thailand, 2 whereas in northern Australia, it accounts for 6% of all bacteremias and 32% of community-acquired bacteremic pneumonia.…”

Melioidosis: an important cause of pneumonia in residents of and travellers returned from endemic regions

“…In addition to infection by inhalation, bacterial load on exposure (inoculating dose) and virulence of the infecting strain of B. pseudomallei are also likely to influence severity of disease. However, it has been noted that, despite the large bacterial load in severely ill patients with septicaemic pulmonary melioidosis, person-toperson transmission is extremely unusual [9,72]. This, together with the rarity of fulminant melioidosis in healthy people, supports the primary importance of host risk factors for the development of melioidosis.…”